Badmike wrote:Badmike wrote:Well, I can give a pretty good mini-review of Plague of Terror since I just finished re-reading it, the others I'd have to re-read before attempting a summation. .As promised, here is a mini-review so a would-be collector can get the feel for a typical Companions release. If my memory serves, Plague of Terror was probably the least distinguished of the scenario packs, but it's still an interesting setting and adventure. The main plot is the takeover of the village of Wentworth and its holdings by the thoroughly evil "Sir" Elgar, a villain and opportunist of the highest level. His many layered plans are worthy of a major bad guy; if you ran this in your campaign, I'd make this guy a major "Darth Vader" like recurring antagonist, one who continues to bedevil the party for years. His strengths lie not in his abilities or magic items, however, but in his cunning and devious mind, and unravelling his plan will tax even the most knowledgable and experienced party of adventurers. To further obfustcate his role there are several sub-plots and red herrings present, as well as minor villains (including one so vile and despicable Sir Elgar doesn't look as bad next to him!). Much of the set up occurs before the party ever travels to the village of Wentworth, as Elgar's dastardly plans are proceeding along just fine. It is hoped that the arrival of the adventurers will be the thorn in the paw that eventually unravels all of Elgar's careful plans. In setting and tone I found the adventure read much like a classic western flick, you know where the man with no name or the group of misfits roll into a corrupt western town and proceed to clean it up. There is a timeline for the story that proceeds along from when the party arrives until 30 days later when Elgar's plans will be completed by marrying the current Baron's daughter. Hopefully the party will begin to investigate and foil his plans long before then, if nothing but for the sake of innocent women being tortured and killed by one of Elgar's henchmen (The "Plague" of the title) during the activities. Elgar has insinuated himself into the upper levels of Wentworth society by befriending and beguiling the Baron's son, Emery. Emery was sent away by his father Baron Fallon to learn about the world and grow up; the young impressionable knight was taken in by Elgar's charismatic ways, and Elgar completed the takeover by presenting Emery with a Collar of Obedience, a magic item that works much like a constant Charm Spell. Elgar returned with Emery back to the Barony, where he proceded to similarly beguile the Baron's daughter with the goal of marrying her; kill the Baron's wife when she got too close to the truth; framed the Baron's loyal guard for treason and installed his own cronies as the new Manor guard; turn the village into his own private criminal empire by recruiting thieves, scum, con-men and killers to take over all the village's enterprises and industries and extorting those that didn't leave when this happened; place his own false priest into the position of the formerly trusted village pastor; open negotiantions with a local tribe of hobgoblins in order to sell them villagers to use as slaves; attempt to kill the loyal steward of Baron Fallon and then poison and kill the Baron himself (after which he will marry the Baron's daughter and his takeover of Wentworth will be complete). As you can see, Elgar is an ambitious SOB as well as being thoroughly evil. However, most of his evil deeds are done in the background as he uses the completely loyal Baron's son Emery as the front man in his escapades (he has Emery issue all of the orders so he can slide if blame is placed for anything). The main plotline is the devious plans of Elgar and the taking over of the village bit by bit. There exist several subplots, which are: Destroying the fencing operation run by Elgar on the side; Defeating the fake priest and rescuing the real one; Killing or running off the evil tavernkeeper and the host of "riffraff" that work the inn as pickpockets, con men, thieves and killers; Rescure the villagers being sold into slavery; and in the most interesting subplot discover and kill a psychotic serial killer who is targeting ladies in the town before he tortures and kills them all in his lair (Fensterwald is also the right hand man of Elgar, who doesn't know what his own assistant is up to on the side). Fensterwald has been poisoning ladies who once rejected him (he is of half orc parentage and once lived in the town years ago), having the fake priest declare them "dead" of a plague, then bringing them to his personal torture chamber after they awaken to do away with one by one. The faster the characters can unravel this mystery and find his lair, the more of the doomed ladies they can rescue. If not, the dead and tortured bodies of the ladies begin turning up in quite grisly ways (a dog finds the arm of one girl in the swamp; the fingers of another girl are discovered left on her husband's doorstep by the increasing insane killer). All in all, it will take a lot of time and effort to wrap up all of these subplots and the main plot in a month's time; it could take even longer if the party dallies. Each subplot has it's own section, which details the characters involved, their schemes, and the locale they are found in. All together, I believe the module describes close to 25 NPCs in more than average detail. A lot of the subplots could be ignored or used in another adventure, but having so much going on in one village gives an impression of a dynamic, living situation that the characters have stumbled into instead of the typical "everyone is standing around waiting for the heroes to arrive" plotline of many fantasy RPG modules. There is a timeline of events, and several planned encounters to go with the freeform investigation that many characters will use upon getting involved in the village's affairs. It is entirely possible that characters will focus on a few subplots and the main plot and either ignore or chose not to delve into the others. The author uses several very good methods in order to get the characters involved, and doesn't make this seem like "railroading" the party or using the old fashioned "You all wake up in a jail cell together and you have to do a favor for the king to get out..." crap. The events and encounters, and the characters involvement therein, all flow naturally and logically. For example, the set up of the entire adventure involves the characters as they are on the outskirts of Wentworth meeting the fleeing loyal manor guard as they escape combat with Elgar's men who have trumped up charges against them and forced them to flee for their lives. The character's are asked to provide a priest for healing the injured members; later, when the loyal guardsmen are found butchered in the woods, it sets the stage for seeds of doubt to creep into the characters mind that the new Manor guards are truly moral and trustworthy individuals. The PCs aren't beat over the head with this introduction by having either the bad guys or good guys "overact" the part and immediately force the player's to choose sides; later, when more bad things in Wentworth become evident, it merely becomes one more link in the chain of evidence that leads to Elgar and his schemes. As noted, the environment is not rigid, and if the party does not get their asses in gear several helpful NPCs will be killed off (chief among them the Baron's steward Sir Ricard and Lady Penelope, the Baron's daughter's lady in waiting) and Elgar's hold on the village will intensify. I've never actually played this campaign, but it seems that if the party waits until the Baron is eventually killed (which occurs on Day 21) they may have waited too long; past this date they have few allies and they better get ready for one clusterfuck of a battle with Elgar and his troops (probably at his wedding for the most dramatic effect). Lots of possible endings, battles and resolutions for this scenario are what I like about it (and the other Companions items). I don't see how any two gaming groups would play this alike or have even remotely the same wrap up. As a matter of fact, it's entirely possible the players might get sidetracked with the subplots and utterly fail to stop Elgar from becoming the new Baron; this would lead to a intriguing continuing plot as he would probably start hunting down the party as soon as he consolidated his power in the area. Well, the mini-review was far more than that, but as you can see the respect myself and others have for The Companions items are well justified. I would recommend anyone get at least one of these scenarios (they pop up on Ebay all the time, and are not too expensive) and at least read it if not play it, the ideas alone are worth chasing one of these down. If anyone else has used one of these in a campaign world, let us know how the adventure turned out!Mike B.
Badmike wrote:Well, I can give a pretty good mini-review of Plague of Terror since I just finished re-reading it, the others I'd have to re-read before attempting a summation. .
grodog wrote:Mike, how about a review of your favorite Companions item? I don't have any, and would like to know which to avoid
MShipley88 wrote:Just a minor interjection in TSR's favor.... They were the leaders in the hobby and under much closer scrutiny than any other company. They avoided truly frightening levels of human evil because they were the ones who were likely to get hauled into court to defend their publications. I had the chance to work with James Ward a few years ago. He told me that a part of his old job at TSR was to testify in court proceedings as a witness for the prosecution. Every defense lawyer with a teenage client tried to blame D&D for his client's crimes. Every civil case lawyer tried to collect money by tricking credulous juries with silly claims about D&D. TSR's careful choices when it came to depicting graphic evil were not the result of a lack of institutional balls. It was the result of TSR's awareness of their legal vulnerability and their responsibility to young (often very young) gamers. Mark 8)
MShipley88 wrote:Gygax himself called it, "The Angry Mother Syndrome," and his company did not take it seriously enough soon enough. :cry:
Adam Shultz wrote:MShipley88 wrote:Gygax himself called it, "The Angry Mother Syndrome," and his company did not take it seriously enough soon enough. Ah. But I think TSR owed its popularity to these so called scandals and the like. The old saying is 'there is no such news as bad news in business'. Especially the business of entertainment which gaming fits under in my opinion. It all served as free advertisment and sunk into the conciousness of society in ways that mega ad campaigns could not achieve.Business was not hurt by any of this 'devil' press accusations at all. TSR's demise as a business was wrought onto itself from product development toward the mid to late 80s.
MShipley88 wrote:Gygax himself called it, "The Angry Mother Syndrome," and his company did not take it seriously enough soon enough.
For general info, The Companions Product line consisted of campaign items and play aids. I'll leave out describing the hex and grid paper they also offered. In terms of campaign items, these consisted of The Curse on Hareth; Plague of Terror; Brotherhood of the Bolt; Streets of Gems; Gems for Death; and the disputed Sacrifices of the Orc Lord (disputed because even though it is listed in both the product line published on the back of modules, and in Schick's Heroic Worlds, I've never heard of anyone actually seeing a copy in the 20 years it has supposedly been out). Play aids include Places of Mystery I: Chilling Chambers; Places of Mystery II: Alluring Alcoves; Places of Mystery III: Sylvan Settings; Treasure Troves I: Cards of Power; Companion Pieces I & II: Fantasy Furnishings. The format for the Places of Mystery series is 10 short settings per item, very fully described, with suggestions for scenarios or adventures using the room or area as a backdrop. This are also highly recommended, if nothing else they can give a ton of really good adventure ideas. The Cards of Power describe lots of new magical items. Fantasy furnishings are sheets with crack and peel furniture designs for filling in 25 mm maps (sorry I think I used up all mine back in the day and no longer can find these!).